Industry Forum

06 February 2012
Lunch Meeting - London
The City and Europe

The Prime minister, David Cameron, has stated recently that the City of London is under “constant attack” from EU directives and is “a key national interest that we need to defend”.  Stuart Fraser, from the City of London Corporation has added “a deal in Europe, in the Eurozone, could marginalize the City”, and the Mayor, Boris Johnson, has suggested that a Tobin tax, favoured by the European Commission and a number of Eurozone states would reduce London’s competitiveness. These comments raise big questions: Are the City and the EU fundamentally incompatible? Could the City really thrive outside the EU? Would closer integration with the EU stifle London’s competitiveness and reduce it to a regional financial centre? Could closer integration help the City to become even stronger and more international?

Sponsors:

• Intellect

25 January 2012
Lunch Meeting - London
How do we get the Economics we need?
Numerous authors have blamed the 2008 banking crisis in part on the economics profession. There was initial optimism that mechanistic, model-based economic theories would be reformed. Despite this, three year’s on, little has changed in economic thinking. Slow growth, unemployment and protesters in New York and London are showing that governments and economists do not have forever to come up with solutions. New, practical economic ideas are urgently needed by governments, business, and especially, young people seeking jobs. Come and hear John Kay, outline how shortcomings  in economics have lead directly to problems in banking and finance, and what needs to be done.

John Kay, Author and Economist

Sponsors:

• Institute of Physics

16 January 2012
Evening Meeting - London
Steering through global turbulence: UK economic prospects

In 2010 the incoming UK Coalition administration adopted a cuts programme aimed to achieve a balanced budget by 2015. Since then, external economic conditions have worsened: The US recovery has been anaemic, the Eurozone has serious and unresolved problems, and even in China the growth rate is falling. These developments and the associated uncertainties are making UK economic progress far harder. At the start of 2012, come and hear Andrew Sentance, the outspoken economist, give his views on the problems facing the UK and how it could steer through them.

Sponsors:

• PricewaterhouseCoopers